Looking to move within the South East. Ideas please? Need good schools & public transport, but only have around 170k to spend.

[SparklePrincess]

So where in the South East has good schools, good public transport, (dont need London access) I probably wont have a car, hence good transport. Where can I reasonably expect to live for that sort of budget, or is it not happening? My parents live in Hastings & I want to be able to visit them fairly easily, but not live there because of cr@p schools.
Ideas please?

How old are your DDs?

I have 3 DDs - eldest one is 13, then I have a 10 yr old and then my youngest is 7 and a half! (and yes the half is very important to her!)

If there is anything you want to know then please just yell or please feel free to E Mail me.

My dd`s are 6 3/4 & 8 1/2. Theyre in years 2 & 4. Are the decent schools likely to have spaces mid year or are we likely to be stuck with whats left over? Are class sizes huge?
I dont have CAT at the moment but id love to keep in touch with you incase we do go ahead with Deal. It would be useful to have a local contact. My email is [email protected]
The only downside with Deal for me is that its so far away from my parents & they dont drive. It would mean I would only see them once or twice a month rather than every week as I do now on a day I dont work while the dc are at school. I would hope to be able to get a car, but doubt I would be able to afford to run or maintain one without dh around to fix it for me.

You might want to check out the journey times between deal and hastings. I don't know about trains, but in terms of car journeys it isn't the fastest (you have to go rural roads). qjump.co.uk is a good train site. I live in Kent (and love it) but if I were going to be travelling a lot to Hastings, then I would probably look at somewhere on the Sussex side maybe Lewes or similar (parts of west kent also good for transport links to Hastings but can be quite expensive).

Thanks SquiffyonSnowballs (great name) Much as I love the idea of Deal I think youre probably right & its a little far out. Im now looking into Eastbourne which my parents can get to on the free bus in just over an hour. Its not as cheap as Deal & schools arent as good, but its probably a more realistic option.